Onion World: The Voice of the Onion Industry

International Plant Pathology Students Explore Path through Vidalia Onion Country

Onion World
September/October 2005

For graduate students enrolled in the University of Georgia’s plant pathology program, a visit to one of the state’s largest Vidalia Onion packinghouses was a way to better understand a unique commodity and discover how disease control relates to real world agriculture.

Students from Columbia, Ecuador and Mozambique were accompanied by Extension Vegetable Pathologist Dr. David Langston, who works at the University’s Coastal Plain Experiment Station and educates producers on the latest vegetable disease control technology, and Dr. Phillip Brannen, Extension fruit pathologist at the UGA campus in Athens.

The students toured Stanley Farms, which sold almost 14 million pounds of Vidalia onions—15 percent of the industry total—and was the third largest handler in 2004. While there, they discussed onion diseases and reviewed how controlled-atmosphere storage practices can help control certain onion diseases. According to state extension agents, the onion industry is the only one in Georgia that uses controlled-atmosphere—or C.A.—storage for extended market timing. Other parts of the country use C.A. storage for commodities such as apples and grapes, so by touring the Vidalia onion sheds, students gain exposure to a storage method used extensively throughout the United States and worldwide.

“The size and scope of the onion packing facilities is somewhat overwhelming when one first sees it,” Brannen commented, “but seeing just one facility gives students a good idea of how big and important this industry is to the Vidalia region.”

Listening to and asking questions of handlers like Tracy Stanley allows both the students and extension specialists to get valuable input directly from industry decision makers.
Pathology students study and observe multiple industries from year to year. In addition to Vidalia onions, this year they covered wine grape diseases, peach diseases, ornamental diseases, field crop—peanut, corn, soybean, cotton—diseases, and blackberry/blueberry diseases with visits to both commercial and research facilities. They also visited the Savannah ports facilities and the Homeland Security Customs and Borders Patrol (as related to incoming plant pathogens or insects which could enter the state through its ports) and the APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) station. Vidalia was part of an 850-mile tour junket the group has traveled this year alone.

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